New film posted on Vimeo

Films kindly given to OTJC by Richard Hines who owns the copyright to the films.
Film made for Channel 4 , Here We Go, was shot in February 1985, in a last ditch effort to get other unions to support the miners’ struggle. It’s powerful, inspiring, moving and heart – breaking stuff. Particularly when Lorraine Bowler and the Worsborough All Stars – all of them miners wives – sing, ‘We are women we are strong…’ The women play an equally important part in both films as the men.

In the films we are with the miners at home, in their communities, on the picket line. Unlike the news coverage, shot from beyond the police lines, we are with the miners looking at the police, confronting them. In Here We Go we’re present when a miner has been assaulted by police, demanding to see him to prove he hasn’t been beaten up – he has. We see a woman arrested. Richard tries to interview her through the police van window, but a policeman bangs it shut and it is driven away. And so on.

A note from Richard:
I’m Richard Hines, but in the films I call myself Richard Anthony – my first 2 names. I’m a son of a miner, brought up in a South Yorkshire pit village, and set up my own film company, Banner Film and TV, to make films that gave voice to working -class people. The two films for Channel 4 I made with the miners’ – and their families – who worked at Hatfield Main, were the first shown British television supporting the miners’ strike in 84/85. I’ve had them transferred to digital, and thought they might be of help to your campaign.”